


Call Me by Your Name

by hwangbabo



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-11
Updated: 2018-04-11
Packaged: 2019-04-21 12:46:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14285226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hwangbabo/pseuds/hwangbabo
Summary: Just when Jeno thought he would never find someone who reads books as much as he does, he met someone in the library who quotes his favorite underrated romance novel in their initial conversation.





	Call Me by Your Name

**Author's Note:**

> This is not inspired by Call Me by Your Name, I just like the book and the movie SO I DECIDED TO INCLUDE THE BOOK IN IT HAHAHAHAH sorry guys I'm just too lazy to make a fic inspired by the long ass movie.

**jaemin**

 

“ _And if you can’t say ‘yes,’ don’t say ‘no,’ say ‘later.’ Is this why people say ‘maybe’ when they mean ‘yes,’ but hope you’ll think it’s ‘no’ when all they really mean is, please, just ask me once more, and once more after that?_ ”

 

Jeno puts his phone on his stomach and spares Jaemin a glance. He just quoted a few sentences from his favorite book, entitled “Call Me by Your Name: A Novel” by André Aciman, to Jaemin. “What do you think?” he asks, smiling softly when Jaemin looks over his shoulder to look at him in the eyes. The younger then says, “To be brutally honest, I think that book is just trying to justify humans’ indolent answers.” Jeno cackles, but then he got up from his laying position and sits up crossing his legs together. They’re on Jeno’s bed, all huddled up together.

 

“Well, I do think so too, sometimes.” Jeno smiles while saying so, his hands holding his phone that fell off his stomach when he got up. “But not these days. I’m way too focused on how beautifully poetic that book was designed.” his smile never really left his arrogantly perfect face, and the sight just makes Jaemin smile. “Is there something on your mind?” Jaemin asks, feeling a cold shiver when Jeno’s face fell into gloom. “You know there’s always something on my mind, Jaemin.” Jeno says again, resting his head on his palm.

 

Jaemin sits up, circling his arms around Jeno’s shoulders. “Is this about us?” he asks, pressing his forehead against the side of Jeno’s head. _Yes_ , he thinks, but “Maybe.” is the only word Jaemin could hear coming out from his best friend’s mouth, ever so faintly. “Look, if this _is_ about us, I don’t need to say any more of my bullshits you just heard last week, do I?” Jaemin asks again, pulling away as he went back to his original laying position. Jeno lets out a small sigh, which is followed by a faint agreement. He then repeats what Jaemin said to him last week:

“You’re my best friend, and I don’t know how to put this. I’m straight, and I’m sorry you came to love me. I just want you to still be my friend, please? I hope you meet someone who deserves this.”

 

Jeno still couldn’t forget how he confessed to Jaemin, and got rejected almost immediately after it with the sweetest lies he ever heard since his soul entered the universe. He rubs his head on the thought of losing his best friend. Then he rubs his nape, on the thought of never being able to be with Jaemin the way he wants to be.

 

“That’s right,” Jaemin breaks the silence. “and you will find someone. You’ll know he’s the one when you haven’t even told him about Elio and Oliver, and he already knew them.” he adds. Jeno chuckles. “That’s a nice thought.” he thanks the younger. “I am a nice person.” the said one adds. Jeno snorts, then Jaemin throws a pillow at him while trying to stand up. “You’re going to see Hyerin?” Jeno asks. Jaemin just nods. “Later, dude.” he adds. “Later.” Jeno answers.

 

 

**donghyuck**

 

Jeno decides that meeting Donghyuck is probably the best option he has now. He doesn’t feel like talking to Mark (partly because he is _kind of_ scared of what Mark would say about Jaemin), or Jisung and Chenle. (Don’t wonder why they’re always glued together. Just, don’t.) Back to the matter in hand, Jeno is on his way to meet Donghyuck. Fun fact: Donghyuck is one of his four friends who took Jeno’s sexuality in quite nicely. Jeno smiles on his way to him, thankful of how amazing of a friend Donghyuck is being for him right now.

 

“Do you mind telling me why you’re smiling like an idiot, because to be frank, you’re literally wasting such a good smile by being gay.” Donghyuck’s voice surprises Jeno who was already sitting on a bench near Donghyuck’s apartment. He lets his hand forms into a fist and clutches onto his sweater. “You’re being both creepy and annoying right now. You think gays don’t get attracted by a smile?” Jeno lets out a sigh before proceeding to put his beloved friend on a headlock. “Well, I could’ve used that smile to hang out with some girls!” Donghyuck says, choking on his on breath.

 

“You do realize you’ll never be even half as handsome as I am, right?” Jeno laughs when Donghyuck shot him a glare. “Let! Me! Go!” he says, breaking free from Jeno’s infamous headlock. “Listen, **jerk**. Here in Korea, it’s easier to find a girl who wants to accept ugly me than a boy who loves your _incredibly annoyingly_ handsome face.” Jeno laughs out loud, noticing how if others say it, it would probably hurt his pride, but this being said by Donghyuck, everything is just fun and pixie dust.

 

“And how the hell do you even headlock someone like that? That should be considered attempted murder!” Donghyuck whines, re-straightening his wrinkled top. “If anyone sees us like this you’d be the one considered gay.” Jeno cracks a joke. Donghyuck then says, “You’re so stereotypical to your own kind, dude. That’s annoying how you get to joke about the gays.” which Jeno responds to by ruffling Donghyuck’s hair. “You yourself just joked about us.” Jeno keeps the smile from breaking.

 

_Just another same old day with Donghyuck_.

“What do you want to eat, though?” Donghyuck asks, pulling out his cellphone and opens the camera app. He stares at his own face for a while before trying to put his hair into their original place before Jeno ruffled them. “I’m not quite hungry, actually.” he answers, chuckling faintly when he feels Donghyuck’s stare digging a hole on the back of his head. “Excuse _you_?” Donghyuck exclaims.

 

“You called me saying you want me to accompany you eat! I starved myself for nothing, god damn it!” he says, catching up with Jeno’s long steps. Jeno laughs. “I’ll accompany you eat after this, but can you please take me to the town library, please? I needed you for your car.” Donghyuck rolls his eyes. “Okay, but you’re going to treat me to it and that’s final.” he says before finally handing Jeno his car key. “Let’s go get that book you’ve been obsessing for over a month now.” he adds.

 

 

**the one**

 

“Jeno, it’s been one and a half hour and you haven’t found the book yet?” Donghyuck protests, arms crossing against his torso while leaning on a shelf close by. Jeno gives him a hundred dollars bill and shoos him away. “Does that mean ‘use my money but go eat alone’?” Donghyuck asks. Jeno nods, a little annoyed, and shoos him away again. Donghyuck leaves Jeno alone in the library with a wide smile. He’d never reject a hundred dollars bill. Jeno comes back to focus on the shelves and find the book.

 

“Call Me by Your Name… Call Me by Your Name…” Jeno continuously mumbles the book’s title, which results to some people signaling him to knock it off. It’s a library, anyway. But Jeno is beyond busy and nothing could distract a busy Jeno. Not even a small-figured boy who stares at him and chuckles at everything he does while holding onto the book mentioned. “Why can’t I find it?” Jeno lets out a sigh of frustration before deciding to sit down in front of the OPAC computer provided.

 

He looks through it and finds out that there are only two copies. One borrowed and one not. “Then where the hell is the other one?” Jeno sighs, throwing his head backwards and staring at the shelves upside down. “Over here.” a soft voice comes from the front of the desk he’s been sitting on, behind the OPAC computer. He looks at the guy standing before his eyes, smile all bright and eyes all gone, hair all flowing down naturally like he was born like that, touching his incredibly delicate yet soft features.

 

He suddenly thinks of Jaemin, of what he said before. _“and you will find someone. You’ll know he’s the one when you haven’t even told him about Elio and Oliver, and he already knew them.”_ echoes in his head on perpetual loop. “Call me by your name and I’ll call you by mine.” Jeno says unconsciously. “Elio.” the guy in front of him said, smiling to the sound of the familiar quote. “Oliver.” Jeno answers, smiling back at him. “Elio.” the guy says again, giving the book to Jeno. Jeno accepts it, but his eyes haven’t gone anywhere other than the beautiful creature standing upon him. “Oliver.” Jeno says again. _Just like in the book_.

 

They stare at each other until the air becomes too awkward for them, and then Jeno breaks the eye contact. He coughs to clean the air and wipes his hands off before (awkwardly) stands up and offers the guy a handshake. “I’m Jeno. Lee Jeno.” he says. The guy smiles brightly–again–and takes Jeno’s hand into his. “I’m Huang Renjun.” he says. _Even his name sounds really beautiful_. Jeno thinks to himself. “Renjun.” he mumbles. Renjun, on the other hand, pulls his hand away from Jeno’s and nods. “Jeno.” he says when he realizes Jeno just blankly stares at him.

 

“Sorry, I was just… thinking.” Jeno excuses himself, making the other fluster. “It’s okay. It’s really nice to meet you, though, really. I thought I was the only person in this world who knows the book existed.” Renjun says, dragging on a chair and sits himself casually next to Jeno. Jeno sits on his chair, smiling from ear to ear. “Yeah, me too, actually. No one really ever knows about this book.” he says. He can slowly feel his ears turning red from embarrassment. Renjun chuckled, and Jeno thought he heard an angel sing.

 

They then talk about more stuff. About Renjun, his age (they’re the same age, and Jeno is more than happy to find this out), where he came from (China. He’s Chinese, with a surprisingly good Korean skills), his movie and book preferences (romance. Jeno really noted that), and many more. This eventually leads to a talk about Jeno. His age, where he came from, and his movie and book preferences (which Renjun responded to with “Oh, you like so many queer movies. How open minded).

So he talks about his preferences. _Real_ preferences.

 

And he sees it. The light.

Renjun pulls him into a tight hug. “I’m here for you, my friend! I’m gay, too!” he whispers, and when he pulled away, Jeno could see his crooked teeth showing from the smile being too wide. Jeno feels like he’s going to throw up. You remember how Donghyuck is the one out of only four friends he has that lets the fact sink in quite quickly, now _this_ is way quicker than that. And, the fact that Donghyuck is not gay and is open minded as hell still amazes Jeno.

 

But what amaze Jeno more is the fact that the only thing he could think about as of right now is how Renjun’s warm breath is tingling around his ears.

 

For once, Jeno doesn’t think about anything. He doesn’t think about whether his clothes today give off a “gay vibe”, for whatever he meant when he was thinking about that last time. He doesn’t think about being gay and having to cope in the society where that is way worse than sinning. He doesn’t think about what he’s been going through these past few months, the coming out, the heartbreak, anything. For once, Jaemin is completely off Jeno’s mind. And that’s a good start, isn’t it?

 

After hours of moving places, coffee, exchanging numbers, and chatting around, Jeno finally realizes that he’s way more curious than he thought he was. So right before the sun goes down, he decides to ask something that might just be a little across the line to ask someone he just met hours ago. “Do you have a boyfriend?” he asks, his little heart clinging to the slightest hope that the little ball of sunshine in front of him is single and ready to mingle. “No, sadly, no.” the long awaited answer comes out after what felt like an eternity. Jeno smiles unknowingly.

 

~~Jeno smiles because he knows all too well that this is his only chance.~~

 

He knows almost everything about Renjun now, given he’s only known him for a few hours, which must be a good sign. The sun is down and Jeno keeps catching Renjun glancing at his watch between small talks. “Curfew?” Jeno asks, chuckling when all he gets is a shit-eating grin and a nod. “Well, meet me again here tomorrow? 10 AM? I want to take you on a date.” Jeno asks again, slowly getting braver and bolder by time. He catches a glimpse of Renjun’s cheeks turning the slightest shade of pink.

“Maybe,” Renjun tries to play around a bit, but his bright pink face gives everything away.

 

“If you can’t say ‘yes,’ don’t say ‘no,’ say ‘later.’” Jeno quotes his favorite book again.

“Is this why people say ‘maybe’ when they mean ‘yes,’ but hope you’ll think it’s ‘no,’” he continues, but gets cut off when Renjun says,

“when all they really mean is, please, just ask me once more, and once more after that?”

 

Jeno smiles, though he knows it’s not the right time to shy away.

“So, meet me again here tomorrow at 10 AM? I’ll take you on a date.” Jeno repeats. Renjun takes his backpack and puts it on, smiling from ear to ear towards Jeno. He stands up, walks a few steps away from Jeno before looking back, his smile evident while saying,

“Later.”

 

And that one word successfully hits home for Jeno.

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to have an alternate ending but... I'll sort that out later. Enjoy :")


End file.
